Day 19 - A Royally Unroyal Day

After breakfast, we returned to our room and packed up our rucksacks for a move to a down-graded classic room. Once done and after saying goodbye to our toilet and bed that had served us so well, we handed in the keys to our deluxe room at reception.

It was around 10.30am, when we set off on foot for the Royal Palace National Museum. We arrived 30 minutes later, but the gates were locked on what I thought was the main entrance. We ended up walking around another half mile of the entire circumference of the Palace walls until we found an open gate with legions of Koreans pouring out of it.

We fought our way through the tide of bodies and up to the Palace entrance, where a sign read that we were required to show our tickets. I enquired where the ticket office was, only to curtly be told it was closed until 1.30pm.

There were several other buildings within the palace grounds, including a garage with several vehicles presumably used by the royals. As soon as we entered the doors were closed, so that we were trying to look at the vehicles in virtual darkness. The door was open sufficiently for us to escape.

There was also a temple within the grounds, so we took off our shoes and walked up the steps to enter. We were just at the top and about to enter, when you guessed it, a lady closed the temple doors without the slightest utterance of apology or look of sympathy. We had no choice but to about turn and walk back down the steps in our socks to our waiting trainers.

This was the final straw for Jackie, so we went off in search of refreshment. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Luang Prabang is such a beautiful, peaceful and calm city. It was a pleasure to wander around looking for a rest spot once we were away from the Korean hordes.

We settled on Tangor Restaurant, where Jackie had a pint of BeerLao and I had the most delicious mocktail, whilst we watched the world go by. We also read up on the Royal Palace National Museum and discovered that it closed between 11.30am and 1.30pm - I should have been more vigilant with research apparently!

The 1st review we saw for the Royal Palace National Museum made us laugh. It was from Jacqueline L, written last year - “Horrible signage; boring. Must leave any bags & phone in locker room SW of museum - but don’t leave your ticket in…”. Zero stars.

That sealed it for Jackie, she would wait with the bags and my phone, whilst I visited the museum at 1.30pm.

At 1.25pm, we returned to the Royal Palace National Museum, but again swarms of Koreans were heading towards the main gates. I quickly decided that I had no interest in fighting them to get in, so we turned around and headed home via a couple of other temples. I got told off for entering one little museum with my shoes on, but I politely pointed out that there were no signs.

On the way home, we stopped at another lovely little cafe called L’Etranger. We shared a caesar and bacon baguette and a beer, Jackie also managed a glass of wine. We then walked home and stopped at a shop, until I was forced to abandon Jackie and rush back to the hotel to use the loo.

We were now moved into Room 201, a 1st floor slightly smaller room with a view across the gardens down to the Nam Khan. We sat on our new balcony for the remainder of the afternoon.

That evening we caught the 7pm shuttle bus into town and walked through the old town to Tamarind Cooking School, where we had a table booked for 7.45pm. We were delighted to see a prime outside table had been reserved for us.

We ordered a carafe of white wine, then selected the Set Menu - An Introduction to Lao Flavours. I won’t list all the courses, because I took a photo of it, but it started off with a Lao whisky shot each, one made with honey, the other with banana. The shots were so strong we put them to one side for the end of the meal and even then Jackie couldn’t manage hers, so I helped her finish it.

The meal was very nice, but not as memorable as maybe we had hoped. Jackie hardly ate any dinner other than the soup, river weed and ALL the fruit. I did my best to eat as much of the rest as I could. The highlights were the crispy bamboo snacks, the baked river weed, the sausages and the sticky rice with tamarind sauce.

We started to walk home whereupon Jackie announced that her foot was hurting in her flip flops. As luck would have it, we saw that a little boat was about to ferry a couple across the Nam Khan. It was 10,000 Kip (30p) per person. We jumped on and joined a young Malaysian couple.

This crossing was a massive shortcut and saved us an extra walk of about a mile, which was particularly handy because just before we arrived at the hotel the heavens opened and we did not get wet. Maybe our lucky bracelets are paying dividends.

Song of the Day - The Royal We by Silversun Pickups.Read more